wine together, when we were first acquainted; and how I used to have a head-ache after sitting up with him.  He did not like to have this recalled, or, perhaps, thinking that I boasted improperly, resolved to have a witty stroke at me:  ’Nay, Sir, it was not the wine that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it.’  Boswell.  ’What, Sir! will sense make the head ache?’ Johnson.  ’Yes, Sir, (with a smile,) when it is not used to it.’—­No man who has a true relish of pleasantry could be offended at this; especially if Johnson in a long intimacy had given him repeated proofs of his regard and good estimation.  I used to say, that as he had given me a thousand pounds in praise, he had a good right now and then to take a guinea from me.

On Thursday, April 8, I dined with him at Mr. Allan Ramsay’s, with Lord Graham and some other company.  We talked of Shakspeare’s witches.  Johnson.  ’They are beings of his own creation; they are a compound of malignity and meanness, without any abilities; and are quite different from the Italian magician.  King James says in his Daemonology, ’Magicians command the devils:  witches are their servants.  The Italian magicians are elegant beings.’  Ramsay.  ’Opera witches, not Drury-lane witches.’  Johnson observed, that abilities might be employed in a narrow sphere, as in getting money, which he said he believed no man could do, without vigorous parts, though concentrated to a point.  Ramsay.  ’Yes, like a strong horse in a mill; he pulls better.’

Lord Graham, while he praised the beauty of Lochlomond, on the banks of which is his family seat, complained of the climate, and said he could not bear it.  Johnson.  ’Nay, my Lord, don’t talk so:  you may bear it well enough.  Your ancestors have borne it more years than I can tell.’  This was a handsome compliment to the antiquity of the House of Montrose.  His Lordship told me afterwards, that he had only affected to complain of the climate; lest, if he had spoken as favourably of his country as he really thought, Dr. Johnson might have attacked it.  Johnson was very courteous to Lady Margaret Macdonald.  ’Madam, (said he,) when I was in the Isle of Sky, I heard of the people running to take the stones off the road, lest Lady Margaret’s horse should stumble.’

Lord Graham commended Dr. Drummond at Naples, as a man of extraordinary talents; and added, that he had a great love of liberty.  Johnson.  ’He is young, my Lord; (looking to his Lordship with an arch smile,) all boys love liberty, till experience convinces them they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined.  We are all agreed as to our own liberty; we would have as much of it as we can get; but we are not agreed as to the liberty of others:  for in proportion as we take, others must lose.  I believe we hardly wish that the mob should have liberty to govern us.  When that was the case some time ago, no man was at liberty not to have candles in his windows.’  Ramsay.  ’The result is, that order is better than confusion.’  Johnson.  ’The result is, that order cannot be had but by subordination.’